


can't get near you now

by SailorChibi



Series: stuckony sentinel-guide [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Bonding, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Guide Tony Stark, Hydra experiments, M/M, Miscommunication, Multi, Oblivious Bucky Barnes, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Pre-Slash, Pre-Stuckony, Protective Steve Rogers, Sentinel AU, Sentinel Steve Rogers, Threesome - M/M/M, Triad Bond, bucky banres needs a hug, canon character death, except he's not really dead, feelings are hard, mentions of noncon experiments, no one knows how to talk to each other, people need to talk, senstinel senses, sentinel bucky barnes, tony was a howling commando, tony was alive during project rebirth, zones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 06:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10431738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: A prequel toevery day waiting for you; Bucky has no way of knowing that their time, his time, with Stark is so limited.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was commissioned to write both a prequel and a sequel to [every day waiting for you](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6842383). During the prequel, anon just wanted to know what was up with Bucky and Steve. Here's what Bucky is thinking, anyway.

When Steve first appears, out of the shadows like an angel, Bucky thinks it’s just another dream. Because he’s had these dreams, or maybe they're better called hallucinations, so many times before. He’s cried out for Steve to save him while the soldiers laughed derisively or the doctors muttered something about sedatives, and it always resulted in more pain. That’s why he cringes away from Steve at first, because everything hurts and he can’t take any more pain. He just wants it all to _stop_.

But Steve – this new Steve, who is both taller and broader in the shoulders than he’s supposed to be – doesn’t take no for an answer, and he snaps the restraints and hauls Bucky up and off the chair. Even then Bucky’s mind doesn’t fully process that this is actually happening until they’re stumbling out of the Hydra camp, a confrontation with Red Skull behind them, fire against their backs and a wet, misty rain on their faces.

They meet up with the rest of the captured men and Steve takes charge because he’s a mouthy little shit when he wants to be, directing those that can’t walk to ride the tank instead. Everyone else grabs the nearest weapon and marches, following Captain America into the forests. Bucky himself marches a half-step behind with a gun in his numb hands, Steve in front and a short brunet that he doesn’t recognize beside him. 

Later, Steve drops back and tells him three things: that the brunet’s name is Tony Stark, that he’s the younger brother of the famous Howard Stark, and that he’s a guide. None of that will mean much of anything to Bucky until they stop for a rest and Stark goes to jump down off the tank and fumbles the landing. It’s instinct to reach out and catch the back of his shirt, stopping him from falling flat on his face. Steve grabs him too, and in retrospect Bucky kind of wishes he’d just let Stark fall.

Because it’s like fire burning along Bucky’s veins, sealing something he didn’t know he was missing into place, and suddenly he can feel Stark and Steve in the back of his head and it’s _too much_. His body rebels as Stark slumps like a marionette with its strings cut. Bucky doubles over and throws up as Steve catches Stark, and before Bucky can really figure out what’s going on Steve takes his arm and pulls him off the path. Bucky follows, because he’ll follow Steve anywhere, until they come to a small clearing.

The conversation is tense at best and a complete fuck up at worst. Bucky lands somewhere in between as he watches Stark's back making its way back towards camp. The guy can barely walk but he's marching away from Steve and Bucky like he wants nothing to do with them, and part of Bucky is just fine with that - he barely knows who he is right now, much less someone else.

Steve comes up behind him, all tense and radiating worry. "Buck, that was -"

"Please, Stevie, don't," Bucky says, putting a hand up. He can taste vomit at the back of his throat and his knees feel weak and the only thing that outweighs the pain in his body from the experiments is the pain in his head from this newly formed bond. It's just one more change and Bucky really, truly, does not have the energy to deal with anything else right now.

A frown touching the corners of his mouth, Steve obliges by remaining quiet. But he also proves that it's possible to get the last word in anyway but pulling Bucky into a loose hug, seemingly sensing that anything wrapped tight around Bucky right now is going to get punched and kicked for all that Bucky is worth. Bucky suffers the hug for as long as he can, which is no longer than a minute. Maybe two. He squirms free, ducking Steve's gaze.

Stark spends the rest of the ride back to the camp on the tank, studiously ignoring the both of them. He's doing something to the bond; Bucky's not sure what he's doing, but the pins and needles feeling in the back of his mind slowly settles an itch that can't be scratched, like walking on prickly thorns. It makes the pain even worse and he has to duck off-road a couple of times to throw up. Mercifully, no one says anything about it.

He refuses medical attention when they get back to camp, and Steve is too swept up in reports and bureaucracy to say anything about it. He goes to bed alone and wakes up screaming from both the nightmares and the pain. It lingers, sunk deep into his bones, until he feels like he's gone half mad with it. Most of the other rescued soldiers won't look at him, but he hears the whispers (none of the other men who were carried away came back alive) and sometimes Bucky wishes that Steve hadn't rescued him after all.

Two weeks to the day that they arrived back at camp, Steve comes to find him. They sit together on Bucky’s bunk, not that there’s much space, and Steve tells him about the team that he’s been asked to lead. An “unofficial team”, Steve calls it, one that will handle the kind of missions that the army doesn’t want the public to know about. Captain America will be at the head, and he wants Bucky by his side. 

“Sure,” Bucky says, because he can’t even think of letting Steve going into battle without him; Steve might’ve grown two feet and put on at least 100lbs, but in Bucky’s eyes he’s still the little scrap from Brooklyn who charges into every damn fight he comes across whether he has a chance at winning or not. 

“I’m gonna request Stark, too.”

Knowing he means Tony Stark, Bucky frowns. “That a good idea?”

“He’s our guide,” Steve whispers. “We need him around, Buck.”

Something about the way Steve says that is unsettling. Bucky pulls back to give him a look. “He’s not a weapon you can use and then discard, Stevie,” he points out. “If he’s our guide for that, we gotta go all the way.”

“Knew you’d say that,” Steve says with this half-fond look. “I'm not opposed to the idea. From the moment I first touched him..." He trails off, flexing his fingers, and then sighs, scooching down until he can rest his head on Bucky's shoulder. "Not sure he wants us, though.”

Bucky considers that. “You asked?”

“No.”

Fair enough. Bucky’s not gonna ask either. He rubs at the back of his head. Steve frowns and bats his hand away, taking up the soothing rub himself, strong fingers probing at just the right spots. Bucky melts into the touch, letting his eyes slip shut as the tension runs away. He can’t quite wrap his mind around the whole triad thing, but he knows he doesn’t have a choice. It is what it is.

“Let’s see if we can have a decent conversation with ‘im first,” Bucky grunts finally. “But if you get our guide shot, I’m never gonna forgive you.”

Steve huffs a laugh into Bucky's neck. “If our guide gets shot we’re both gonna be dead already, ‘cause that’s the only way it’ll ever happen.”

“I’ll still shoot you,” Bucky grumbles. He hears Steve chuckle again and wishes that they were really alone instead of in the middle of camp with the illusion of privacy. Someone could walk through the door at any moment, and, while most people are willing to look the other way, there are some who would raise a fuss about something as innocent as a chaste kiss. Can’t have anyone besmirching Captain America’s reputation.

Stark looks kind of wide-eyed when he hears that his name is included on the roster, but he doesn’t argue and Bucky definitely feels a swoop of relief over that. He doesn’t accompany them on their missions, of course, but he proves to be extremely adept at repairing weapons or armor as necessary. Bucky sits across from him one night, watching Stark’s fingers slide across a rifle, and ends up having to hold his plate over his lap to hide the fact that he’s half-hard. Whatever else, Stark has pretty hands.

He’s probably not subtle about watching, though he’s still badly startled when one night Stark says, low and tense, “I’m not gonna fuck up. You don’t have to monitor me.”

Bucky blinks at him. “What?”

“You watch me all the time,” Stark says. “I know what I’m doing.”

“I know,” Bucky says. “It’s soothin’. Sometimes when my head hurts too much, I can just look at your hands and everything else fades away.”

Stark’s hands pause at that, and he looks up at Bucky. In the firelight, the gold in his brown eyes seems to glow. “Are you zoning?”

Bucky hadn’t considered that, but he still shakes his head. “No. It’s…” He pauses, pursing his lips, and decides to trust Stark. “Ever since I was rescued, I get pains a lot. Not just in my head, though those are the worst. Not sure what those bastards did to me.”

“You probably don’t want to know,” Stark says, and yeah, he’s not wrong. He resumes his fiddling. “If you were zoning, I’d help you.”

“I know,” Bucky says, surprised. 

“You don’t act like you know,” Stark mutters at the rifle, and then he shuts up and just glares at Bucky whenever Bucky tries to say anything else. Bucky eventually gives up and just sits in silence, letting the warmth of the fire and Stark’s hands comfort him, until the patrol comes back and it’s his turn to go out. 

Truth be told, Bucky’s not really sure how to talk to Stark. He jokes around and snarks at the other Howling Commandoes, but clams up around Bucky. He and Steve get into a few arguments, both of them so stubborn that all Bucky can do is stand around and roll his eyes and wonder why fate cursed him with such stubborn mates. But in spite of the obvious tension, Stark never leaves. 

And then he saves Steve’s life.

It’s a raid on a Hydra camp, though smaller than the one Bucky was rescued from, and there’s explosions and fire all over the damn place and Bucky hurts from head to toe and he sees Steve go down, eyes fixated on his shield and utterly oblivious to everything happening around him. Bucky yells at him but he’s not even sure his words are getting to Steve over all the yelling, and even if it were perfectly quiet he knows Steve can’t hear him. 

A zone, Bucky thinks. The word fills him with cold horror. But even as he’s thinking it, Stark appears from nowhere. He darts fearlessly onto the field and rips Steve’s helmet off, cupping Steve’s cheeks. Artillery shells rain around them and Stark just stands there, looking down into Steve’s eyes, like some kinda angel descending from heaven in the middle of hell. The thin whistle of an incoming bomb echoes through the air.

Too fast for Bucky’s eye to follow, Steve snaps into motion. One moment he and Stark are kneeling together, the next Steve’s up and got the shield and has dragged Stark behind it. Bucky loses them when the field explodes, dirt and mud and body parts flying in every direction, but he’s already moving, stumbling towards the place he saw them. An ache of profound relief unfolds in his chest when the smoke clears and he finds them some ten feet away, Steve curled protectively around Stark.

That night, the whole team around the campfire, Bucky looks across at Stark. And for the first time, he thinks he can see how it would work. Everyone tells you that guides are weak. Their forte is the heart and sometimes the mind, if you’re lucky enough to have someone strong (for a guide, anyway). They’re not good in battle and they need to be coddled and protected. They aren’t good for anything but drawing a sentinel out of a zone, and even then only in ideal conditions.

It’s bullshit. Complete bullshit. Stark is as much a soldier as any of them; he’s capable and deft and would probably punch you if you tried to coddle him, and he’s _way_ stronger than Bucky. Bucky stares at him, at the way that Steve and Stark are grinning at each other, and feels a surge of pride. Suddenly he can see how this is gonna work. It gives him a feeling of comfort, looking ahead to the end of the war. 

He doesn’t say anything to Stark that night, though. It turns out to be his biggest regret when he’s falling through the hole in the train.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
